I wrote the book Tapping Student Effort, Increasing Student Achievement, around a formula that reads effort times ability, focused on a manageable task, equals success. I found a lot of students were unaware of the formula. Many thought the formula was ability equals success. They had a tendency to look around the room and spot […]

 Often in my presentations with teachers, instructional coaches and leaders, I focus on the belief that our real goal is teaching how to learn our content rather than teaching our content. Instrumental music teachers know they can’t teach you to play the instrument, they can teach you how to learn to play. If the young […]

I’ve been searching and gathering thoughts and examples that explore what learning could and should look like. In Tapping Student Effort, and in many of my presentations, I present William Glasser’s model of motivation from survival, belonging, power, freedom and fun.   Connecting that with Daniel Pink’s work in Drive (autonomy, mastery and purposefulness), I […]

I was recently asked to facilitate a high school staff who had been working in PLCs that were department centered around curriculum and assessment. I was given a request to create an opportunity for them to focus on individual student success. The staff was regrouped for the day into teams of about six who were […]